Kikyo, the dead priestess from Inuyasha.  I don't remember if this was a request or if I just decided to draw her.

There was always something a little tragic about Kikyo.  She tried to be a good person, but always fell a little short due to her own inadequacies.  Contrasted with Kagome, Kikyo does come across as a little arrogant, a little vindictive.  But there's a lot of good within her, too.

A picture I did contrasting the television Starfire with the comic book Starfire.  Poor TV Starfire is envious of her older, more well-endowed comic book self. 

I always loved the way George Perez designed and drew Starfire.  She was a wonderfully unique creature, ten kinds of sexy, but an innocent kind of sexy.  She was like your little sister, if you little sister happened to be a Playboy pinup.  And the way he drew her hair as this cascading mound of curls was magnificent.  It had to be a lot of work, but George Perez never seemed to shy away from such detail.  Bet his inkers loved him, though.

The way they draw her today is just a little more cynical.  She's like your little sister, but after she's had two failed marriages and a stint in rehab.

In the late 40s, Timely Comics (predecessor to Marvel) got the notion to start producing female superheroes.  It came from the response Miss America got when they gave the character her own title.  Why she got her own title in the first place probably lies in publisher Martin Goodman hearing how well Wonder Woman and Mary Marvel were selling.  That was also about the time Harvey Comics gave Black Cat her own book, so Goodman may have sensed a trend.  So he flooded the market with female-oriented titles and characters: Millie The Model, Tessie The Typist, and other such titles, along with Miss America, Namora, Sun Girl and The Blonde Phantom.  Plus Golden Girl replaced Bucky in Captain America.

Unfortunately, sales on the others didn't match sales on Miss America.  Millie and Blonde Phantom stuck around a few years, but the others quickly disappeared.  It's too bad.  Blonde Phantom wasn't a bad book, although her costume is totally impractical.  And Namora was fairly interesting.  Timely and later Atlas didn't do a bad job with female heroes.  Venus under Bill Everett was very good, and Lorna The Jungle Girl had some nice stories by Don Rico and some nicer art by Werner Roth.  They just never stuck with them, just like Timely and Atlas rarely stuck with anything.  And the next interesting female Marvel would produce would be the Black Widow, and she was a villain in the Iron Man comic.

A very old picture of Jean Grey as Phoenix.  Of course such simple restraints could never really hold Phoenix.  But we can dream, can't we.

Kimiko and Katnappe, two of the more delightful aspects of the show Shaolin Showdown.  I was trying to get a jade effect with the background, but I don't think I pulled it off.

Another cover fake, this one featuring my three favorite members of the Legion Of Super-Heroes.    I kind of cheated a little and had Shadow Lass in her original uniform while Dream Girl and Phantom Girl are wearing the uniforms that Dave Cockrum redesigned for them.  I just like that version of Shadow Lass better.  The art shows one of my weaknesses, that being my impatience with multiple figure pictures.  I also don't know what I was thinking with the background building behind Dream Girl.  That perspective is just psychotic.  Curt Swan could have taken this layout and done a much better cover.

Back in the day, I used to occasionally do what I call "cover fakes", where I'd draw scenes I'd like to see and then add in the logo of an actual comic book so it seemed like it was an actual cover for that comic - - given that it was featuring my semi-pro art.  In this sequence we find Rogue and Mystique captured by a third party who doesn't mean much good to either one of them.  It also fulfills a minor fetish of mine, that being mother/daughter damsels in distress.

Power Girl, attached to a pole of metal unbreakable for a Kryptonian, bound with bands of the same metal.  She's angry because her captor also gave her breasts a squeeze - - or else it's Wednesday.  With Power Girl, you never know.

I tried to get a little arty with the background rather than just have it be blank white. I don't know if it works.  It's different without necessarily being better.

Zatanna performing another daring and ingenious escape act, though I don't think it was her idea.  Another picture that would have benefited more from solid area black shading rather than line shading.

Another old piece featuring one (two actually) of my favorite characters to draw.  There's something about Batgirl's design that I just love working with.  As for the picture itself, it's an odd mix of the comic style and the animation style without truly being a synthesis.

Sakura Shinguji from the video game, manga and anime Sakura Taisen.

I recall when I first posted this, somebody wrote me and questioned my motivation for drawing her "crucified like Jesus was".  Actually the pose was lifted from a scene in Sailor Moon and, while she is tied to a cross, it's technically not a crucifixion, since the binding across her chest and the two over her upper arms supports her torso.  The point of crucifixion was to suspend the victim by the wrists in a way that caused the ribs and diaphragm to be hampered, eventually suffocating the victim in a very slow and very agonizing way. 

Crucifixion as a means of torture was not limited to the Middle East and Europe.  I think it also shows up historically in China and Japan.  And it was a standard means of torture and execution in biblical times that predates Christianity.  Don't automatically assign religious significance to pictures like this. 

Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy captured and shoved in a closet.  Style is from the Batman: The Animated Series.

The Cheetah (Golden Age version) has Wonder Woman in her clutches.

This is a valuable lesson in layout and perspective, because the angle I drew the figures makes it look like Wonder Woman is engaging in an act that she really isn't engaging in.  That wasn't what I intended to convey here, but that's how it looks.  Plus Cheetah's head and shoulders are too small.

 Agent Honeydew, from the "Monkey" segment of Dexter's Laboratory.  The shipping crate background is really crappy.  If I had it to do over again, I'd use a different background.  And this was an early experiment with highlighting with the airbrush feature on Paint Shop Pro. It didn't quite achieve the effect I wanted.

Well, they've got everything else.  And naturally the shackles would be gold plated.

Something about the Dan DeCarlo style still escapes me.

Old old drawing of Black Canary, recolored in the middle 2000s. 

Keeping with the Batman Family theme for today, this is another ancient drawing of mine colored in the middle 2000s, with Catwoman in her "Jim Balent" costume.  I only drew this because I'm such a fan of the Catwoman character.  This version never did much for me.  I'll grant Jim Balent's version of Selina as long, sleek and feline (except for the two basketballs tucked into her blouse) was a proper choice, but the costume design seemed fetishist without being utilitarian.  The outfit she wears now, courtesy of Darwyn Cooke, is both fetishist AND utilitarian and I like it a whole lot better.  But there are still people out there who prefer the above costume and will defend it to their dying breath. 

To each their own.

Yet another really old picture of mine, drawn in the 90s and colored in the middle 2000s after I discovered the wonders of cyber-coloring.  It features Batgirl, a character I've always loved the design of.  The yellow accessories against the black bodysuit just works to my eye.  Batgirl herself has been such an up and down character, but part of what keeps her from being discarded completely is this look, as originally designed by Carmine Infantino.  He really got this one right.

Medusa, from the Inhumans (and occasionally the Fantastic Four).  She was another character who wasn't quite as beautiful when Chic Stone or George Roussos was inking Jack Kirby as she was when Vince Colletta or Joe Sinnott was doing the inking.

And she and The Harlequin over at DC may be the only characters who started out as an adversary of a group or one of the heroes of a group, then later fought aligned with that group.  I always wonder if Kirby and Stan Lee intended her to reform from the start or just decided after creating her that she was too good to be a villain.

Another picture I did once long ago of Susan Richards, The Invisible Girl, this time dressed in her more conservative standard issue Fantastic Four jump suit.  I always remember the day Vince Colletta started inking Jack Kirby's Fantastic Four and everybody suddenly realized that Sue could be a strikingly attractive woman.  All of Kirby's previous inkers had made her a little dowdy and plain.  I don't even think Jack thought of her as beautiful.  But after Colletta's short stint, he seemed to make a little extra effort to improve her look.  Or maybe it was Joe Sinnott taking up where Colletta left off.

The Sea Devils were a group of adventurers published by DC Comics not unlike the Fantastic Four, which premiered right about the same time.  Both groups featured an intrepid scientiest, his blonde girlfriend, his burly buddy and a teenage member of the group.  The Sea Devils explored the oceans.  The Fantastic Four explored everywhere else.  And they had super-powers.

The "Sue Storm" of the Sea Devils was Judy Walton.  She usually didn't do much besides defer to Dane Dorrance, the "Reed Richards" of the group, and look nice in a wetsuit.  It the early 60s, that was progressive.

Obscure characters: in the early 60s, DC Comics tried to jazz up the western Johnny Thunder feature by introducing a female character who was too shady to be a heroine, but not shady enough to preclude Johnny being attracted to her.  Her name was Madame .44, but she didn't make enough of an impression to save Johnny's feature.

I did this in response to a sequence in Adam Warren's wonderful satire of superheroes and damsels in distress called "Empowered".  The scene had Empowered bound up by the lamest villain in existence, Glue Gun Gil, and Sistah Spooky taking arrogant delight in pointing out that Empy lost to the lamest villain in existence.  So I thought she deserved a moment of humility.

And it got Spooky tied up, which is a bonus.  I did the piece in pencil to try to approximate the style of Adam Warren's books.

By the way, Sistah Spooky is copyright Adam Warren.  Buy Empowered.  It's good.

A pencil drawing I did of Uhura from Star Trek once.  I used the picture from Nichelle Nichols' autobiography as a model.  From her ribs up it's pretty good, but the anatomy falls apart below that.

Raven and Jinx trussed up and on display in a zoo for adventure characters.  Just another of my umpty-thousand Raven pictures.

A look inside of the box Raven is trussed up in.  It must be made of some material that resists her mental abilities.  Just one of my umpty-thousand Raven pictures.  I don't know who I like drawing more, Raven or Kim Possible.

Another work that got taken down from Deviant Art for "minor in a sexual situation", and I guess I can't argue with that.  Hinata is under 18 and she is dressed in a fetish costume and she is sitting on a bed unable to defend herself against anything Naruto might want to do to her. There are two mitigating factors, though.  Hinata would probably WELCOME any sexual advances Naruto might make on her.  But what truly keeps it from being an actual sexual situation is that Naruto wouldn't know what to do if he found himself in this position because he's dumb as a bag of hammers.  So Hinata is, to her mounting frustration, perfectly safe.

But she does fill out that maid costume very nicely, particularly the black stockings.

A holiday picture featuring Pocahontas, easily the sexiest of the Disney heroines, and her friend Nokoma.  Frankly I'd rather have those two than turkey any day.

Another older work.

The humor value of shock: put characters in an outrageously uncharacteristic situation and it's usually funny if you can get over the initial shock.

That's what I was doing here.  I wasn't trying to satisfy some prurient interest by implying Pepper Ann had a lesbian relationship with her friend, or by dressing up a couple of 13 year old girls in fetish equipment.  Pepper Ann and her friend were always the polar opposite of sexy to me.  I was trying to be funny by putting them in a situation that is as totally divorced from the nature of the show as if I'd dressed her in army fatigues and placed her in the middle of The Battle Of The Bulge.  But some folks just see surface details and grab their pitchforks.

I actually liked Pepper Ann (before it won all those awards and Disney decided it had to live up to them by being preachy).  And who knows - - maybe Pepper Ann was secretly hot for Nicky and this is just a picture of the fantasy she goes to sleep dreaming.

This is a new work I just did.  I'm premiering it here because if I tried to post it on Deviant Art or Imageshack, the people running those sites would probably have a stroke.  They're easily excitable that way.

The premise is this: Shego captured Kim Possible and, as a way to both humiliate her and get her out of the way permanently, sold her to a group of Human Traffickers for the purposes of sexual slavery.  What Shego didn't count on was the traffickers deciding that she would fetch at least as much as Kim would.  And in the blink of an eye, Shego is just as naked at Kim is and being trussed up for transport to the auction block, a la the film "Taken".  And Kim can only look on helplessly.

Sexist?  Sure it is.  Of course Kim and Shego put their very brilliant minds together and not only escape the traffickers' clutches, but bring down the entire organization in a fit of righteous vengeance (Kim is the righteous part, while Shego more than fills the vengeance side), freeing all of their other victims and striking a blow against the lawless exploitation of human beings.

But it's no fun drawing that...

Dr. Blight has Planeteers Gi and Lynka at her mercy - - and she has no mercy.

I always thought Dr. Blight was a potentially very edgy villain that the producers of the cartoon Captain Planet completely sanitized for the kiddie audience.  She's got all the traits: A genius intellect, a superior attitude and a hideous scar to embitter her, particularly towards hot girls like Lynka and Gi.  I think her interests would run a little deeper than just polluting the planet.

As for the picture, it's darker and edgier to fit how I saw what Dr. Blight could have been.  Plus it got Gi and Lynka tied up in their undies, which is a whole other level of interest to me.  As I recall, the most difficult part was finding a photo background that fit both what I was trying to portray AND fit the perspective of the drawn figures.

Blackfire, probably hoisted on the petard of her own evil schemes. 

Needless to say I REALLY like how this one turned out.

Velma feeling superior to Daphne after catching her in Daphne's usual predicament - - a predicament Velma is about to share.

This is on Deviant Art in another person's gallery.  At the time, I wasn't on DA and he asked permission to display it in his, and I said yes.

Velma Dinkley in a very compromised position.  She's anxious to be discovered, but not so anxious to reveal the racy black undies she secretly wears to the rest of the Scooby gang.

Velma is proof that beefy nerdy girls are just as sexy as the svelte cheerleader types like Daphne.  Moreso in some cases.  I always preferred Velma to Daphne.

Another picture torpedoed by Deviant Art for "minor in a sexual situation".  It was an entry in another artist's contest. 

Yeah, I can see their point here.  I was pushing the boundaries of risque with this.  Even though you don't see anything, she is nude and she is underage in some societies.  And some societies are mature enough to accept that nudity isn't automatically a sexual situation and isn't necessarily bad, particularly if its voluntary nudity.

Of course, it was Temari and Temari seems to trigger the censors over there a lot.  I think Temari has been in more pictures I've had pulled than anyone else.

This picture lasted about a week on Deviant Art before it was struck down for violating "minors in a sexual situation".  Thing is, if you read the dialogue from Shikamaru (if you actually read), you can see he PUT them in that predicament to PREVENT A SEXUAL SITUATION.  Namely he was sick and tired of Temari and Ino fighting over him and he didn't want to deal with either one.  And how else do you get two trained ninjas to stop fighting?  You restrain them.

But obviously someone who equates restraint with rape just looked at the picture and went off.  I thought it was kind of a funny idea myself.